The Greatest Shows on Earth: A History of the Circus

298 Pages·2014·12.1 MB·English

by  Linda Simon

The Greatest Shows on Earth

A History of the Circus

reaktion books
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
33 Great Sutton Street
London ec1v 0dx, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2014
Copyright © Linda Simon 2014
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers
Printed and bound in China by Toppan Printing Co. Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 78023 358 1
contents
Introduction 7
One
Trick Riders 29
Two
Cirques Intimes 51
Three
The Biggest Tents 75
Four
Cavalcades 101
Five
Without a Net 121
Six
Beasts 151
Seven
Clowns 179
Eight
Feats 201
Nine
Prodigies 223
Ten
Transformations 249
References 271
Select Bibliography 284
Acknowledgements 287

Photo Acknowledgements 288
Index 289
Dancing Girl, Egyptian, 1292–1186 bce, painted limestone.
Introduction
And if you ever came home, you came home in a gilded chariot . . .
William Dean Howells
Wherever the circus came from, it started like this: someone
captivated attention by doing what others could not do. is
was a display of startling agility: walking on one’s hands. Springing
from hands to feet, over and over. Juggling balls, or knives. Bending
so far that one’s head jutted from under the genitals, with legs wrapped
around the neck. In short, making a spectacle of oneself. e body as
spectacle is the origin of the circus.
In the Museo Egizio, in Turin, a wall fragment from 1300 to
1200 bcedepicts a figure of a dancing girl, an acrobat, her long, black
hair skimming the ground, her back arched, balancing on hands and
feet. At the Los Angeles Museum of Art, a Mexican ceramic statuette
of a contortionist dates from 200 bceto 500 ce, and a painted ceramic
statuette, even older, shows a man doing the splits. His hands are
raised triumphantly above his head; he is grinning broadly, exultant.
A statuette from Hellenic Greece depicts a young, nude African acro-
bat, his body raised upward from his hands. If acrobatics began in
play – the simple joy of doing a somersault – these performers honed
that sense of play into theatrics, evoking admiration, wonder, envy,
fear – responses shared by artists who, from ancient times, captured
these fleeting exhibitions.
In ancient Rome, during interludes between chariot races, gladi-
ator contests and animal baiting, jugglers and acrobats trotted into the

vast arena to offer light diversion. Some such performers displayed their
7
Ceramic acrobat,
from Xochipala,
Mexico,
900–500 bce.